Riot were supposed to bring back ranked matchmaking with patch 1.02 but things have changed and by the looks of it fans will have to wait a few more days.Valorant was officially released on June 2 and over three weeks later the game still has no ranked mode, just normal queue and Spike Rush. Needless to say, the more competitive portion of the players see no reason to spend time in Valorant when there’s still no ranked. What happened to it?
Rated queue as Riot call it was available back in the closed beta of the tactical shooter but was eventually removed at launch. The devs promised its return in a few weeks and many expected that patch 1.02 will be the one to deliver. Even Riot themselves included a competitive mode update in the official notes.
Today Riot gave fans another update on Twitter which mentioned some issues surrounding the ranked mode.
We found another bug that puts competitive at risk, so we're holding off turning on ranked for a while longer. Sorry for the delay, we're working as fast as possible to get a fix and, when we get one, we'll turn ranked on. Predicting a day or two, but nothing confirmed yet.
— VALORANT (@PlayVALORANT) June 24, 2020
Riot didn’t go into details about the problem and the few days estimate could easily change. Fans weren’t happy with the outcome as many wanted to try the ranked queue for the first time. After all, not everyone had access to the closed beta stage. Ranked matchmaking won’t be simply brought back into the game. It has supposedly been updated with a new name for the highest rank, Radiant instead of Valorant; new looks for the icons, and increased skill disparity range. The latter will make partying with friends who are much higher ranks possible. Players will even be able to play in a party during calibration matches but there’s still a limit for some of the ranks.
- READ MORE: The Valorant 1.02 patch notes
Previously, while Valorant was still in its closed beta period, many criticized Riot for implementing ranked in the first place. As a result, many players had a taste of the system and it only makes sense they’ll expect it in the official release. Unlike back in the closed beta, players who reach the highest possible rank will no longer meet a dead end. With the launch of the Valorant Ignition Series and various events all around the globe, players can now create an amateur team and attempt to qualify for one of the tournaments. So far professional organizations are dominating the scene, but it won’t be too surprising if we see some fresh blood make it big.
Stay tuned for more Valorant updates and check out EarlyGame for more news and videos from the world of esports and gaming.
